1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a device or mechanism for handling of bottles in an orderly arrangement regardless of the shape and size of the bottles and is particularly usable with currently designed bottles having irregular base configurations. The Universal Bottle Suspension Device of the present invention is particularly usable with bottle packers however it can also be used with apparatus designed for un-packing bottles and a variety of other types of usages wherein a universal bottle suspension system is desirable.
A device or mechanisms for suspending bottles of this type is particularly desirable for equipping packers wherein articles of the general types set forth herein are handled automatically. The universal device of the present apparatus is particularly usable to either encase articles or on the other hand to uncase them.
In the situation where articles are fed from a bottle conveyor to fill empty cases or where the bottles are fed from full cases to a conveyor, the bottles are generally disposed in parallel rows and as such the present bottle suspension device is particularly usable. Also to promote fast handling without breakage this device or mechanism is capable of suspending several rows of bottles with each stroke of movement of the machinery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following patents have been found to be somewhat pertinent with respect to the present invention.
______________________________________ PATENTS PATENTEE ______________________________________ 2,899,233 J.C. Cella et al 3,174,791 E.J.M. Dardaine 3,186,751 E.J.M. Dardaine 3,754,667 R.H. Storch 2,431,310 B.C. Coons 2,730,279 A.G. Enock 3,065,988 J.E. Driscoll 2,823,946 G.J. Okulitch et al 3,077,259 C.K. Braun 3,244,303 D.J. Conner 3,886,891 D.F. Hardy 3,765,712 D.F. Hardy et al 3,521,760 B.J. Wallis ______________________________________
These patents disclose the various bottle gripping means usable for packing and unpacking bottles within cases and other orienting receiving means.
A problem has been found to exist with these designs since they assume that the base of the bottle is of generally a flat configuration. The newer bottle design include bases having many various configurations other than flat and as such the bottle does not often set easily upon a bottom narrow rail or the like which have proved useful heretofore. Therefore the present invention provides a universal means of suspending the bottles from above and thereby eliminates the requirement of prior art structures of handling bottles with only flat base areas.